#suvaris

We went to the Hall and found him upstairs by the fire. He apologized for the mess in the office, and said that it hardly seemed to matter, anymore. He was clearly a few drinks in, so he was happy to talk about his troubles!

The place is a mess because they can't really afford to keep the office running as it should. Their ships are being attacked by pirates on all sides, and they can't fight back because all the mercenaries are tied up in the war. Not like they had the gold to pay them, and even if they did, taking out a single boat here and there wouldn't do much. It's clearly a small pirate fleet targeting cargo ships, but the Shatter-Shields' boats are just fine. He accused them of either paying off the pirates to get through, or paying them to target the competition!

Turns out he was right on both counts.

Anyway, he needed proof, so he asked me to bring him Suvaris Atheron's journal from the Shatter-Shield office. Apparently she manages the company for them.

I had no idea, but that explains why I would overhear her complaining about late shipments and the weather sometimes at the Cornerclub.

I can't believe I almost forgot! While I was thinking up a plan to get her notes, Orthus gave Erandur a very obvious once-over and suggested that he "distract" her, because he was (I quote) "really distracting"!

Valdimar elbowed Orthus and said, "Tell me about it!", then they both burst out laughing.

Erandur got flustered and stalked off, muttering to himself in Dunmeri. I don't know what he was saying, but I know it involved a lot of cussing.

It gave me an idea, though. A damn good one, too! It worked perfectly.

I told Orthus and the others to wait for me there, and to come looking for me if I wasn't back after lunch.

I swung by the cornerclub on my way to the office and picked up a bottle of sujamma for the road, and a bottle of flin to share with Suvaris.

She was happy to see me, and when she asked what I was doing there, I asked if I could talk with her inside for a bit. She was a little unsure of Septim, but she's seen how well-behaved he is at the club, so she let him in, too.

After a bit of small talk, I mentioned how cold it's been lately, and offered her some flin to "keep the chill away." She gladly accepted, and I said I usually drink wine, but flin's good for the cold.

I love flin, actually. I like wine, but I'll take flin over wine any day.

After we'd had a bit, I asked what she knew about the Northern Maiden. It wasn't one of their ships, but she pays attention to all of them. I asked her about the Cultists, and she said she saw them. She called them "freaky-looking" and said she was glad to hear they didn't stay in town. They just restocked in the market and left.

Suvaris was even happier to hear they were dead. She was worried they might come back now that the Northern Maiden was almost ready to head back to Solstheim.

That's good to know.

-/-/-/-/-/-

Dinner and a bath was just what we needed!

Two baths in as many days. Divines, I could get used to this.

I mean, I was used to it, back in the Capital. We went to the bathhouses and washed up most mornings, if we didn't go with any marks the night before.

Anyway, the Inn's new bath is as nice as Iddra says it is! The water comes from a warm spring they found in the mine. There's a bit of a smell to it, but it's not bad. It reminds me of the fancy mineral baths that Dru and I used to shell out for sometimes when we could afford it.

You can tell a woman decorated it, too. Not only does it look nice, but there's rugs on the floor so you don't have to walk on the cold stone. I can tell they're the kind that can be used in a bath house without getting gross, too. I'll bet the miners love it!

Anyway, back to my little heist. I'd been sipping at my drink the whole time, and stood to leave once she was done telling me about the Cultists.

I made sure to stagger a bit, then sat back down. She asked if I was all right, and I said that it was probably a bad idea to drink so much flin on an empty stomach. She rolled her eyes at me, and handed me a cup of water. I took it, then offered to buy us lunch if she was willing to go out and get it.

She happily accepted my offer of a free meal, and I handed her more than enough money for the both of us. I told her I didn't really care what she got for me, so long as it would help soak up the booze.

Once she was gone, I dropped the act and started searching. I found her logbook in a back room, tucked under the Shatter-Shield's ledger. I stowed it in Septim's harness, then waited at the table for her to come back.

We had a nice lunch, and when we were done I declared myself fit to handle the stairs up into the city.

I read the journal on my walk back to the Hall.

She's… Really "sparse" with her writing. It's more like a list. She records her meals, and anything that goes wrong with her work, but that's it, really. According to the book, the pirates approached her with an offer to let the Shatter-Shield boats through in exchange for gold. It looks like her boss, Torbjorn, doesn't like getting his hands dirty. She writes that he didn't want to know any more than he absolutely needed to; just how much it would cost to keep things running smoothly.

She went to Dawnstar to meet with her contact, some guy called Stig Salt-Plank. It sounds like she struck a deal with them to not only leave their ships alone, but to target the East Empire Company, too.

Orthus had sobered up a bit by the time I got back, and I'm glad for it. He was mad enough with less mead in him!

He was ready to go on a rampage, but Lydia calmed him down. She pointed out that there's not much he can do to fix the problem without more information. He has the proof he needs that the Shatter-Shields are sabotaging them, but even if they're out of the picture it's not going to stop the pirate attacks. They'd go after Company boats whether they were paid to or not, especially if they were the only shipping company out there!

Orthus agreed that she was right, and asked if we'd be willing to go to Dawnstar to try and find Stig. I said it might take a while, but we'd try. He thanked us, and gave one last piece of advice. He'd heard the dock workers talking about a group of pirates called the "Blood Horkers". They're known for being as clever as they are ruthless. If Stig's one of them, we'll need to be extra careful. Either way, he promised that the East Empire Company would make it worth our while.

We took a moment to check on Sophie before we left the city. She's doing well, and I bought all the flowers she had and slipped her some extra septims like I always do.

We're so close!

We talked a bit about the whole thing once we were far from any guards. Erandur's concerned. He said Frida had mentioned "ruffians" hanging around in town when they weren't out on their boat, but he wasn't sure if she was talking about Wayfinder's crew or some other people.

They're probably those same guys Karita mentioned.

Anyway, we got here not long after that, and now we're winding down with warm drinks and pie!

Erandur made good on his threat to have Valdimar buy him the most expensive dessert there, which happened to be a whole snowberry pie.

Iddra gave me A Look after Valdimar paid for the dessert Erandur picked out, and I took the hint. I told them I'd get the plates, and while I did, Iddra leaned in and asked if they were together.

I mouthed, "No," and she rolled her eyes. She'd given me some Looks earlier while Valdimar was taking care of Erandur's hair, but I wasn't able to say or do anything without looking suspicious.

I hissed, "I know!" before I left with the stack of little plates.

I mean, I'm pretty sure they're not, even though Valdimar takes every chance he gets to spoil Erandur, and the mer frets over his every cut and bruise.

I wonder if they can see why everyone thinks they're together? I mean, surely Erandur knows that buying sweets for your partner is a normal thing, right? I know courtship hasn't changed that much since he joined the Order of Mara. Besides, he's a Priest! He's a Love Expert!

This is so frustrating! I wish one of them would just put on an Amulet of Mara and get it over with!